BlizzCon 2023 Thoughts

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Good Morning Folks! I have to be honest… I had every intention of writing a post on BlizzCon this past Friday as the event was going on but that never quite came to fruition. For those who do not follow such things, this past Friday and Saturday was the first in-person BlizzCon since 2019. I know a ton of friends who were very happy about the return of the event and made plans to travel to Anaheim for it. I’ve always wanted to go, but tend to have a fairly fraught relationship with Blizzard games in general. I feel like it is probably a good idea to get this out of the way, but I have not actively played World of Warcraft since December 2020, though I have followed from afar and did some alpha testing for the latest expansion Dragonflight. I’ve grown apart from the fandom and Diablo was really the last vestige that I clung to.

If you are so inclined, you can watch the full uncut presentation for Blizzcon 2023 here.

All of that said… I am shocked to say that I thought this year’s BlizzCon was almost universally positive. I found it extremely interesting that within 10 minutes of the event starting, we had a speech from Microsoft’s Phil Spencer. He said all of the right things, but I find myself wanting to believe them. As someone who has been a Windows programmer for most of my career… I have a fraught relationship with Microsoft as a whole. That said… I can’t see that Microsoft has done wrong by any of the companies they have acquired. They have most definitely been a steadying force for Mojang and Minecraft. The one strike that I could throw against them was Redfall, but who knows precisely how that mess unfolded because it was a game so far out of the comfort zone of that studio. As compared to the reign of Bobby Kotick… I have to imagine that Microsoft will be a positive force for Blizzard as a whole.

Another thing that I have to admit is that there is a lot of presentation that I just did not care about at all. Overwatch is a setting that seems interesting, but I am not going to engage unless they shift gears and turn it into a looter shooter. Hearthstone is something that I did care about for a while… but now that Magic that Gathering Arena exists and is relatively enjoyable… I have a good representation of the game I actually care about and don’t really need the Blizzard clone. Rumble is outside of my wheelhouse especially now that my aging phone seems to have trouble running any modern games that are not the most simplistic of 2D graphics. So essentially for me… BlizzCon was a show about World of Warcraft and Diablo, both of which got some interesting announcements.

Based on the schedules that came out ahead of the show, I fully expected that we would not get a Diablo IV announcement this year. I am pleasantly surprised that we did and it is going to be set in the area of the world from Diablo 2 Act 3 the Torajon Jungles. This should in theory be southwest of Kehjistan in the current Diablo IV areas. They were pretty limited on their information but did drop that we are going to be seeing a new class that has not existed in the Diablo franchise before. Data mining leaks ahead of the show indicated that this was some sort of nature-based class. More important than all of this however is that they released some information about more endgame content going into Diablo IV starting this week and continuing into Season 3 in January. There is also going to be a winter holiday event which might be interesting for a bit. Unfortunately, the new endgame content starting this week is going to be gated behind the season’s journey, which means it is really only for folks who are languishing at level 100 and doesn’t do much to solve the problem of running out of an interesting reason to grind further after about level 80.

In the realm of “why does this exist” we get to World of Warcraft and more specifically “Classic WoW”. Apparently, the classic servers are updating to Cataclysm… which seems really weird to me given that the sweeping changes to the old world that came with Cataclysm were the impetus for many of the unofficial emulator servers that eventually coalesced into the official “Classic” product. Does anyone actually want this? I am hoping that they maintain some Wrath servers for the folks who did not want to move forward into Cataclysm. Maybe there is someone out there who missed out on the first decade of World of Warcraft and is now interested in reliving it at a rapidly increased pace. It is however spawning a number of memes around this having to happen so that they could launch World of Warcraft Classic Classic. I have specific negative feelings towards Cataclysm as this is when I first broke from the game as a whole.

The other classic project however seemed really interesting. “Season of Discovery” is sort of a re-imagining of World of Warcraft with unique talent trees and class changes designed to make playing it wildly different. They specifically name-dropped Tanking Warlocks and Mage Healers as mutations available during this game mode. The irony here is that we absolutely had a Warlock Tank in Ahn’qiraj, and I myself tanked as a PVP geared Boomkin…. so this might be something that interests me in the long run. One of my favorite eras of World of Warcraft is Gladiator Stance and being able to dps with a sword and shield as a Warrior. If they bring this back… then they probably have me at least for a bit.

The big news however was the announcement of a change in practice towards expansions in World of Warcraft and while they did not elaborate on this… a shorter time frame between them. Not only did they announce The War Within which comes out next year, but also Midnight and The Last Titan as a trilogy of expansions with shared themes. We’ve learned that they always worked on multiple expansions at once from the fallout of Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands… but I do feel like this would probably improve the narrative experiences of the Warcraft universe. Final Fantasy XIV was only as good as it was because it was a cohesive narrative that evolved over a decade rather than what felt like a serialized villain of the week type gameplay that we have had in Warcraft. My hope is however that they can be nimble with the mechanical side of the game because having the narrative be something that is building over time is good… you need to be able to adjust to changes on the ground when the player base is not reacting well to something like the “borrowed power” systems.

I think this is going to be the World of Warcraft expansion that wins me back. Almost everything about it seems to specifically cater to my interests. I love underground areas and this seems to be an entire expansion where we are diving deeper below the surface. I am very much dwarven-influenced, and I am all about tunneling through the earth to find interesting things. When I plan Minecraft I almost always start by digging a giant shaft to bedrock and see what I find along that path. I am also super interested in the Warband system as I have always wanted to be able to share more benefits from my Alts, given that I tend to be an Altaholic by nature. Almost everything that they announced seemed universally good and I am super interested in the Delve system which seems to be a dungeon-like experience that scales between 1 and 5 players.

I think more than anything… there was just a different energy in the air for this show. Gone was the “we know better ” attitude that surrounded a lot of the discussions from past BlizzCons and it was replaced by what seemed like a genuine unbridled excitement over what they were showing off. The vibe was just better than it has been in probably a decade or maybe even longer. Blizzard felt like a different company, and while we had the return of Metzen… he didn’t necessarily overshadow the other folks who were presenting things to the players. I want to see Blizzard thrive under Microsoft not in small part because I still know more than a handful of folks who work there. I want to play these games without having a bad taste in my mouth and feel like I am betraying my core principles.

This is the first time in a very long time that I have had hope for World of Warcraft as a franchise, and Blizzard as a company. I watched Diablo IV evolve from a complete shit show at launch to being a rather enjoyable if not somewhat temporary game with Season 2. Blizzard seems to be saying the right things and I just hope that they can back up those words with actions over the next few years. In the new year, I am probably even going to poke my head into the Dragonflight expansion and see what it has to offer. This is the best I have felt coming out of BlizzCon weekend in a very long time. Good job all… now keep that momentum going into the next few major launches.

AggroChat #455 – Getting Krangled

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AggroChat Episode 455 show card for the show titled "Get Krangled" showing the Path of Exile krangled passive tree and portraits for the hosts Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, and Thalen.

Featuring: Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We are down essentially our entire Seattle contingency for assorted reasons that I don’t believe are actually connected.  So we carry forward with our Central and Eastern Timezone folks and talk a bit about BlizzCon and how there was a wildly different energy surrounding the event.  It feels like a new chapter for Blizzard is opening that may or may not have anything to do with the Microsoft acquisition.  From there we talk a bit about the Krangled event and how bizarre it is to play with a randomized passive tree.  Bel talks about the situation at Bungie and the general sense of dire straights for the Destiny franchise.  Bel also talks a bit about easing back into Final Fantasy XIV and catching up on the post-Endwalker content.  He has also been playing New World a bit and going through the expansion content while leveling to 65 and farming some new gear.  Finally, we drive off into a discussion about the books that we have been reading and float the idea of a “Books of the Year” show similar to our “Games of the Year” show we often do.

Topics Discussed:

  • BlizzCon 2023
    • Overwatch
    • Diablo
    • World of Warcraft
    • Three Expansion Cycle
    • The War Within Features
    • A New Feeling Blizzard
  • Path of Exile
    • Krangled Event is Strange
    • Like Bad Sealed Magic
    • Bel League Discussion
      • Kodra is Super Serious
  • The Bungie Situation
  • Easing back into FFXIV
  • New World Expansion
  • Book Talk

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A World of Darkness

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Good Morning Folks! Just a heads up ahead of time I am going to be talking about some things in the MSQ in loose terms, so if you want to know NOTHING about the post Endwalker content then this might be a post for you to skip. I am not going to drop major spoilers but I will be talking a bit about the sequence of items. I have to say I have officially reached the point in the story where things are starting to get good. One of the big problems that I had with Endwalker is that it wrapped up the 10-year story of Final Fantasy XIV so tightly in a bow… that I found I didn’t really “need” more story to keep me going. We had resolved all of the major plot points that I was interested in and was probably fine to just walk away from the game permanently at that point. This is in part why I have not really played the game since early 2022.

I left some things lying on the table, for example, I had not experienced all of the role quests. Last night I started the evening finishing up the DPS role quest and with it came some interesting revelations about Gosetsu. I remember doing the tanking quest but given that I did not make it to another level 90 before bailing from Endwalker, I was not eligible to do more of them. I think overall I probably liked the post Shadowbringers role quests a bit better, but these were fun and ended up taking you to various places around Eorzea to complete them. The DPS quest was a nice recap on the events of Stormblood or at least catching up with that cast of characters in the Doman Enclave.

Where the Post-Endwalker quests have gotten really good however is that we are now visiting the Thirteenth… aka the world that fell to void for “reasons” that I won’t elaborate upon. This means we have figured out a way to cross over into the void world with teleporting the aether or the person and separating it from the body like was done during Shadowbringers for everyone but our character. While I am not sure if this would work for the other reflections due to the sequence of events leading up to this… it is very interesting to be back in the World of Darkness on our own terms rather than simply to fight the Cloud of Darkness as we did in the Crystal Tower sequence. Right now the zone exists in a sort of extended quest area and I wish that we would have gotten a proper questing zone here instead.

The coolest part about all of this is that we are taking down the Arch Fiends from Final Fantasy IV and working our way towards what I assume is a Golbez fight. In the second post-Endwalker dungeon we fight Scarmiglione and then reprise that fight later in the quest content officially taking him down. That means that I am also fully expecting to see Cagnazzo, Rubicante, and of course Barbariccia. Final Fantasy IV or as I played it… Final Fantasy II… was a huge game for me. I obsessed over this game so much when it came out and have played through it several times over the years. So seeing this ground tread upon again is compelling for me at least.

When I finished for the night I had gotten up to the point where I was going to be entering the domain of wind, and ultimately fighting Barbariccia… which means we are taking them out of order from FFIV if I remember that correctly. In my mind I remember doing Scarmiglione, Rubicante, Cagnazzo, and then Barbariccia… but that could just be me misremembering things. We’ve already been to the moon in this expansion, so I guess it makes sense that we are taking things a bit out of order. Essentially I had to call it for the night because I assumed the next sequence would take a bit and it was already nearing 11 pm. I should pick up tonight and get through the wind domain.

In addition to MSQ progress, I knocked out another item from the Fall Guys promotion that I wanted. Yesterday I talked about getting the rather gaudy rhino mount, and yesterday I picked up the first of two minions. Next up I will grind out the currency needed to get the mechanical penguin minion, and then if I do nothing else from this event I will be happy. I might pick up some of the clothing items, but I’ve never really been a big fan of dressing in modern clothing styles in a fantasy game. I tend to prefer to look like I am ready to go off into battle, not that I am going to be hanging out at the mall. Granted it isn’t that malls exist anymore but that would have been the GenX equivalent. That I guess poses the question… where the hell do kids hang out these days?

Anyways… the only thing that concerns me a bit from this most recent foray into Final Fantasy XIV is that some of my old instincts are beginning to kick in. Naturally, I want to make all of the numbers turn orange… and I found myself updating my old spreadsheet plotting my progress on leveling up the jobs. In the months leading up to Endwalker, I went on this mission to get every FFXIV Job from 50ish to cap them out at 80 before the expansion hit. While interesting and something to draw my focus… it was very much not good for my long-term health with the game as a whole. When Endwalker landed I was so burnt out from seriously focused leveling that I just needed a break from the game. It has taken me some 22 months to get back into the mood to play some more Final Fantasy XIV apart from logging in to either attempt to buy a house, or more recently reset my demolition timer.

So when I found myself updating the spreadsheets yesterday… it gave me a bit of pause. I am not sure if this is the healthiest thing for me to do when it comes to the longevity of me playing this game. Sure I like tracking data… but I am not sure that it is wise to set some sort of goal this time around. Before Endwalker I was pushing myself to make sure that I could level everything to the cap before that expansion landed. This time around… I am not sure if I care that much about having everything at 90 before Dawntrail. There is still part of me that wants it… because I will always want to make all of the numbers go up. However, I think I have learned my lesson that I do not want to force myself into a funnel this time around or set some unrealistic expectations.

Anyways… I am back in FFXIV and enjoying myself but I fully expect to fade away from time to time. I care more about Path of Exile for example than I do about this game, so as the new pre-3.23 events start up this week and we move into Bel League at the start of 3.23… I will probably be hitting the pause button in FFXIV. I am very happy though to have the friendly chatter of the Mastodon-based Frendedex to keep me company as I get my feet under me again.

Failing Forward

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Good Morning Folks! Last night I largely spent my evening in Final Fantasy XIV. The other day when I ran through Eureka Orthos with a friend, we managed to find four of the hidden treasures. When revealed at the vendor I managed to pick up a shiny new Innocence Barding for my Chocobo and the Wind-Up Weapon minion seen in the above screenshot. I realize that I probably could have sold these for a pretty penny on the market, but the collector in me wants them all. I am certain I am woefully behind in both the Mount and Minion collecting tallies since I have not seriously played Final Fantasy XIV in quite a while.

I’ve continued to throw myself at the Fall Guys event and managed to get enough of the currency to pick up the inflatable pink rhino mount. I can’t necessarily say when I will actually use this thing because it is rather gaudy but once again… the collector in me wanted to tick it off some imaginary list. The other two things that I want from the event are the minions and considering the mount is one of the most expensive items I went for knocking it out first. That tends to be my strategy for these sorts of things, go for the big ticket items first because I know my resolve will waver as the event rolls on and I will want to spend less time failing at Fall Guys.

I took the MSQ up to the point of doing the first post-Endwalker dungeon. I had a lot of fun in this place and once again I am super thankful for the existence of the Duty Support system. There is just something so nice about being able to run a dungeon with the relevant parties that you were involved with during the questline. Even if I had a ready group… I might still use the Trust/Duty Support system just for the narrative experience of getting all of the interesting comments as you go through the dungeon.

The highlight of the evening however was further down the quest chain when we entered the forbidden library at Sharlayan. The theme song playing in there is a unique version of the one that was playing in the Great Gubal Library… one of my favorite Heavensward zones. I kinda love thinking that maybe this is just what ALL libraries in Eorzea sound like. There is also so much serendipity that Y’shtola was the first Scion I really adventures with back at the launch of A Realm Reborn, and now that I am in the post content she appears to be the one that is most tied to driving the new storyline forward. She has always been my favorite of the scions so it always makes me happy when we get to do some “bad ideas”.

All in all, it has been far easier to slide back into the game than I originally thought it would be. Leveling the Mechanist helped quite a bit… as did having a spare million gil to throw towards some gear. At some point, I want to get back into the swing of Tanking and might rely on some of the #Frendedex from Mastodon in order to do some of that. I gotta say that has helped a lot over the last few days to have some folks that I already knew from Gamepad and other Mastodon servers to at least chit-chat with while I am doing some quests. I think on Friday I will probably at least play around a bit with the Krangle league, but for now I am having a blast in FFXIV again.